FRANÇOIS MORELLET was born in Cholet (France) in 1926. Morellet began to interest himself in geometrical abstract forms (usually uniform structures), towards 1950. His initial research led him to mostly two-tone surfaces and, in 1956, to the first superimposed patterns, painted or metallic, determining retinal effects of alteration. In 1960, in Paris, he was a founding-member of GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuelle) and his interest centered on kinetic perception investigated by means of geometrical lattices or grids, usually very fine, with the purpose of determining vibrant chromatic surfaces and new graduations of color depending on the intensity and quality of the rhythms of perception. aras gallery

How to inject NY into NY?
New York appears in many ways like the ensemble of thousands of rocky islands; side by side growing out of the very rigid order of the city’s urban grain. On top of these rocks, generations of inhabitants have built little island huts, planted gardens along with rooftop mechanical units, water tanks and parasite structures. Life evolved.Within the boundaries of regulations, budget and ground spaces, there exists a unique culture, a 'secondary New York' above the rooftops of these orderly rocky islands. Many buildings try to deny the rooftop activities with parapets or potted plants, which seem like a conservative approach to a fundamental challenge. It is difficult for the city to discard the existence of these secondary living things that have occupied the rooftops, claiming these uniquely serene spaces of New York and making them a part of the city's recognizable character. It becomes pertinent to address these stranded spaces.
How could existing challenges be considered as opportunities? How could new interventions begin to uncover these secondary New York spaces? Could creativity equal to comfort, freedom or success? The project is an extension to these very dialogues. The transformation works to compliment the spirit of the city rather than denying its existence entirely. Volumes and spaces transform the existing relentless city grain into a more habitable human scale by breaking down the building facades into small visible units, vertical surfaces of this 'new island’ become more dynamic and efficient. Increasing the opportunities to introduce more views and more privacy simultaneously.
The project does not try to re-invent a new kind of mixed-use injection into an existing context, nor does it introduce a movement to change the existing city grain as it will destroy the character of the existing urban structure. Rather, the project accepts respects and understands these historical growths as significant markings of time and tries to combine them with today's situation - New needs, New desires - to negotiate a platform for coexistence. The project cultivates a new sense of appreciation for the living things that gives the city its character.

The disrupted skeleton without an interior finish has a peculiar charm and strength of space.
So I emphasized the shape of this space by painting the whole surface white, and tried to give order and rhythm though arranging the transparent furniture.
The furniture made of acrylic resin is like solidified water and slightly thicker than the ordinary glass, so it feels both heavy and light.

OMA's design for New Court is the fourth iteration of NM Rothschild & Sons' London headquarters, all of them built on the increasingly dense and architecturally rich site on St. Swithin's Lane, a narrow medieval alley in the heart of the City.

In her book "Death and Life of Great American Cities," written in 1961, Ms. Jacobs's enormous achievement was to transcend her own withering critique of 20th-century urban planning and propose radically new principles for rebuilding cities. At a time when both common and inspired wisdom called for bulldozing slums and opening up city space, Ms. Jacobs's prescription was ever more diversity, density and dynamism — in effect, to crowd people and activities together in a jumping, joyous urban jumble.
The New York Times

Cypriot artist Haris Epaminonda’s production is essentially determined by the collage technique which she has extended by combining pictures, films, photographs, sculptures, earthenware vessels, pieces of woodwork, Chinese porcelain, antique figures, and other found objects from a wide range of sources to complex installations. Epaminonda deliberately avoids all references to her objects’ date and place of provenance and meaning. The viewer is rather thrown back upon himself and his own associations.
All the artist’s pictorial, filmic and spatial compositions share a similar sensibility and texture. Epaminonda’s subtle and yet strangely emotive language opens up an imaginary space in which one can lose oneself in a realm of relations and gestures of its own while moving through the exhibition. For the SCHIRN, Epaminonda will create a new installation which will question aspects of time, motion, stillness, as well as of representation and presentation.Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

OMA received an honorable mention for Très Grande Bibliothèque, a competition to build a new national library in France. The program called for the creation of various smaller libraries contained in one building envelope; including libraries for moving images, recent acquisitions, reference, catalogues and scientific research. The immense amount of information to be stored within these spaces (books, films, digital databases) became the impetus for the overall concept design. The library is imagined as a solid block of information, a dense repository for the past, from which voids are carved to create public spaces – absence floating in memory.

The project involves the complete redevelopment of an urban site on Seven Sisters Road, on the edge of Finsbury Park in north London. Three new urban villas of varying height are arranged around a shared pace and are treated as a tightly knit cluster, continuing the typology of villas on Seven Sisters Road and providing forty-four one- to four- bedroom apartments for mixed tenure.

Roskilde Music Festival is one of the most vibrant urban areas in the world with 120.000 people gathering in a field to celebrate music, culture, life and each other. These people aren’t there to be told what to do! They are there to have the time of their lives! It is their festival and they want to create their own environments and experiences! All we can and all we should do is to create environments that beg the question:

…WHY DON’T WE?

‘Why Don’t We Do It On The Stairs’ is an open and flexible concept providing a variety of spaces to accommodate all sorts of activities throughout every hour of every day of the festival. By creating two large stairs offering seating with views of the festival grounds and filling them with activity boxes where anything can happen, people can always find spaces that suit their mood - whether they want to learn how to make music, dance, kiss, meet other people, play boardgames, sleep, read newspapers or just sit down and look at people (and all the crazy things people do).

1. At Roskilde Festival there is always a need for somewhere to sit down and have a rest between eating and seeing your favourite band, or somewhere to sit and wait to meet up with your friends. By organising the seats in a 27m x 27m x 10m triangle constructed from re-used plywood with scaffolding as structural support (like a football stand), they become a natural meeting and gathering point for the entire festival.
From the top you can look over to the Orange stage and all the way back to your tent in the camp!

2. People like to watch people, and nowhere is this more true than at Roskilde where people seem to do even stranger things than usual. By placing another triangular seating area facing the other one, there is never a lack of people to watch; endless entertainment!
The different orientations also allows you to choose whether to sit in the sun or in shadow all throughout the day.
Plus, it creates an area in between that is ideal for sports, public events or improvised concerts!

3. We like to pretend it never happens, but sometimes it rains even at Roskilde. When the rain pours down outside, nothing is nicer than a roof under which to stand and stay dry at least for a little while. By cutting out the underside of the stairs, we create a giant roof covered area that can be enjoyed even when the sun is shining!
(At night it turns into a giant disco!)
The complex arrangements of structural supports, lights hanging from the ceiling and art installations creates a dream world of inspiration and mystery.

4. People come to Roskilde not only to watch bands, they come to have the best week of the year! By placing several activity boxes in varying sizes in the stairs, we present people with the opportunity to make their own dreams and ideas become reality.

The project is a winter cabin to be built in a highly restricted area in the mountain landscape of Ål in Norway. The cabin is designed as a landscape element that leads wind and snow around and over the building. One of the client’s initial wishes was to be able to actually go skiing, sledge riding and picnicking on top of the cabin.
The cabin is to be erected during late summer 2012.

ADHouse for Wallpaper* explores the arrangement of public and private areas, with four double-height private spaces interspersed with a series of small courtyards and public rooms. The house fits three bedrooms, three living spaces, a dining room and a kitchen into a square floorplan. All the bedrooms have access to their own private rooftops, and an open-air hot tub, while public spaces are used freely to cook, eat, read or play. This dual-layer landscape enables the residents to find a place of their own at any time